During the entire 1969 Professional Football season, all NFL players wore a shoulder patch
on their uniforms, reading "50 NFL". I petitioned the American
Football League owners to have their players wear a patch commemorating the
league's ten years, especially since it was the AFL's final year. The AFL
owners generally either ignored or declined this suggestion. In Lamar Hunt's words,
they felt that a patch would make the uniforms "too busy".
However, Billy Sullivan of the Patriots did forward my letter to then-AFL
President Milt Woodard, who wrote me:
"As for your
suggestion that AFL shoulder patches also be worn for the Super Bowl, I will
investigate this with the firm which will provide our jerseys and ascertain
if it can be done handily."
(click the quote to see the full letter)
I enlisted the support of AFL players, notably Buffalo Bills Hall of Fame
quarterback Jack Kemp, who
also urged Pete Rozelle to support the idea. By season's end, in response to a
letter from Kemp (a request no doubt reinforced by the fact that Mr. Hunt's team was in the
final Super Bowl played between two LEAGUE champions) Mr. Hunt agreed to have the Chiefs wear
a ten-year AFL patch in Super Bowl IV.

AFL Hall of Fame coach Hank Stram supported
the idea and used the patch as a motivating factor for his team. Stram was
later quoted as saying "You
could not believe it when you saw the faces of the players. These were great men, and
great pros, but they were like kids in a candy shop when they saw that patch."
Years later, Chiefs linebacker Willie Lanier

remarked"It lit us up. We
knew what it meant." In the last game ever played by an American
Football League team, with the AFLpatch on their shoulders, the Chiefs went
out and destroyed the Vikings 23 - 7. See the write-up for
1969 on the official Kansas City Chiefs page at
http://www.kcchiefs.com/history/uniform/
~ Ange Coniglio